Girls Recap: That Little Ewok In the F%@&ing Capri Pants

Well, so this was basically the best episode of the series so far. Where last week wound up being a practically unwatchable half-hour because of all the ways it rang false—for example, cocaine does not equal Ecstasy—this episode was consistently awesome because of how it moved the characters forward by being all too honest about their strengths and flaws. Mostly their flaws. These are flawed young women. But then aren’t we all? I mean, not everyone pees in the bath, but I think you can understand what I’m saying. Nobody actually does that, right? Pees in the bath? I really hope nobody actually does that. Anyway! Girls.

First off, we have to say goodbye to Elijah. We all knew this time would come. And while Elijah has been, at times, a great character and Andrew Rannells gives the platonic ideal of bitchface to Hannah at always just the right moments, this is the best thing for the show. Because as much fun as Elijah has been to have around, Girls is much more successful when it focuses on the four main characters and works on making them less like caricatures, and more like real young women. But! Before Elijah leaves us forever (or at least for the rest of the season) we get to hear about how he is livid—”LIV-id”—at Hannah for not only kicking him out of their apartment, but also for calling Elijah’s ex-boyfriend, George, and asking to keep all the furniture that George had once bought for Elijah. Which, wow. That is Hannah at her most manipulative and obliviously self-centered. But I kind of love how unafraid Lena Dunham is to make Hannah absolutely terrible. Because she is pretty terrible throughout much of this episode. Basically, now? When Hannah sits, underwear-less, rubbing her whole “crotchal” area against a chair that Elijah thought belonged to him? This is actually when Hannah is pretty much at her best. Hannah holds her ground against Elijah as he insists on not paying her the rent that he owes because, when they were dating junior year of college, he used to buy her burritos that were “way more expensive than a normal girl’s burritos because you were constantly doing add-ons. Spinach, guac, pecans.” Oh, Elijah. Don’t go the “Hannah is fat” route. It’s beneath you. You came up with “slutty Von Trapp child!” You can do better than fat jokes. Hannah, though, is never fazed by this kind of thing, secure as she is in her body image, and just responds, “It’s not my fault that you didn’t want to liven up your meal.” Which, yes, that’s a good point! Because pecans on a burrito sound fucking lively to me. I’d eat that.

But so anyway, Elijah is out and this opening scene sets the tone for an episode that is all about living together and not living together and domestic bliss and domestic hell. I mean, isn’t all domesticity hell, of a sort? No, no, I guess not. Although it’s hard to say that with any real conviction because Hannah is about to throw a dinner party and it is definitely going to be a hell, if not the hell. Hannah is using the tens and tens of dollars that she earned writing for jazzhate.com and making a grown-up dinner for her friends. Which, nice! And she bought all sorts of expensive, organic materials for her pad Thai because if there is one thing underpaid writers in New York know how to do, it’s blow all their money in one shot on something totally ephemeral, like food or alcohol or drugs. Seriously, that’s almost all we know how to do, other than write, which we only sort of know how to do.